Regenerative Chatter in High-Speed Tandem Rolling Mills

Third-octave-mode chatter, the most detrimental form of rolling chatter, is generated by means of negative damping, mode coupling, and regeneration. While mechanisms that include negative damping, and mode coupling have been thoroughly investigated, those associated with the regenerative effect remain elusive. In this paper, the mechanisms that may lead to regenerative chatter are studied through a state-space representation of a multi-stand mill that is constructed by coupling a homogenous dynamic rolling process model with a structural model for the mill stands in a high-speed tandem mill configuration. Stability analysis, by using the integral criterion for the stability of systems described by delay differential equations, is carried out for the regenerative mechanism in order to better understand the effects of rolling parameters on a single stand as well as the overall system. Preliminary simulation results, based on the proposed chatter model, are presented to demonstrate the feasibility and the accuracy of the chatter model, as well as to investigate chatter phenomena too complex to be studied analytically.